The lives of three Jamaican women come together in this novel filled with history, betrayal, and despair.

[The Women's Press ISBN 0-7043-4508-0]

Jones is one of the fastest rising television personalities and now writes this book of motivation from her experiences dealing with controversy. She's never been on drugs, wasn't an abused child, and wasn't on welfare. Jones believes there are people like her who do not have a voice and she is happy to a voice for them.
[Reviewed by Corinne O. Nelson]

[Bantam ISBN 0-553-10854-9]

Sullivan, a naturopathic physician, presents a guide to treating the whole person, not just the disease that ails you. Diet, herbs, and other natural remedies which are part of the African American tradition, form the foundation of Sullivan's treatment.

[Doubleday ISBN 0-385-48575-1]

From the details of individual women, Hine and Thompson bring a new perspective that is inspiring to the story of Black women from colonial America to slavery and to the arts renaissance of the 70s and 80s.

[Broadway Bks. ISBN 0-7679-0110-X]

Edwards' mystery features they young Harlem sleuth, Mali Anderson. The story takes us through Harlem jazz clubs and bars, beauty shops and barbershops, back alleys and brownstones. Mali nails the murderer.

[Doubleday ISBN 0-385-48524-7]

This is the conclusion to Harris' Invisible Life trilogy, which introduces themes of love and friendship and what happens when those bonds are challenged by life's setbacks.
[Reviewed by Corinne O. Nelson]

[Doubleday ISBN 0-385-48657-X]

This book offers a culinary journey through this vast and impressive continent of diverse cuisine. It brings the tastes of Africa to American kitchens in a kaleidoscope of flavor and color.
[Reviewed by Corinne O. Nelson]

[Simon & Schuster ISBN 0-684-80275-9]

[McFarland ISBN 0-89950-675-5]

Stories come from the villages of Caribbean Islands, the antebellum South, and the streets of contemporary inner cities.  Black-and-white drawings are scattered throughout this work.
[Reviewed by Corinne O. Nelson]

[Pantheon/Schocken ISBN 0-375-70539-2]

This work is a companion to the PBS program created by a team at WGBH in Boston, to be aired in October and February and retells the familiar story of slavery from the landing in Jamestown to the Civil War from the perspective of an African American.
[Reviewed by Corinne O. Nelson]

[Harcourt Brace ISBN 0-15-100339-4]

[Aspect: Warner ISBN 0-446-51993-6]

Black writers and entertainers in St. Louis are mostly responsible for the energy that exists though many left to engage their muse and quarrel with American culture in another location. The collection includes words of such notables as freed slaves and abolitionists William Wells Brown and Lucy Delany to entertainers Dick Gregory and writer Ntzoke Shange.
[Reviewed by Corinne O. Nelson]

[Univ. of Missouri Press ISBN 188-3982-28-6]

The character Jean "Stevie" Stevenson reappears from Sinclair's first novel, Coffee Will Make You Black and has just graduated from college ready to explore San Francisco. Will she make it?
[Reviewed by Corinne O. Nelson]

[Avon ISBN 0-380-72794-3]

[Indiana University Press ISBN 0-253-21105-0]

Jones tells a tragic story of how blacks were excluded from the social transformations in American history-from bound to free labor, from farm work to factory work, and from a blue-collar to a white-collar economy.

[Norton ISBN 0-393-04561-7]

This work is an invitation to build strength and renewal through meditations with words that rouse and to delve into the emotions they awaken. Scattered throughout are quotations from writers such as Alice Walker and Sonia Sanchez.
[Reviewed by Corinne O. Nelson]

[Broadway Books ISBN 0-7679-0080-4] An Altar of Words:
Wisdom, Comfort, and Inspiration for African-American Women
by Byllye Avery
[Buy Now]

Avery is a successful activist who offers personal meditations on activism, belonging, courage, love, patience, power, solitude, wisdom, and others. Each meditation ends with an affirmation and quote from writers such as Alice Walker and Sonia Sanchez.

[Broadway Bks. 176p. ISBN: 0-7679-0079-0]

[St. Martin's ISBN 0-312-15184-5]

This is a funny novel about a man searching for his identity in his family's past as he struggles with being half-Black and half-white.  Over time he discovers a long line of relatives who fought for racial justice.
[Reviewed by Corinne O. Nelson]

[Morrow ISBN 0-688-16208-8]

This biography chronicles the life of the first Black woman elected to the Texas State Senate and the first Black woman from the South elected to the United States Congress. In 1977, Jordan did not seek reelection to the House of Representatives but turned to a life of teaching.
[Reviewed by Corinne O. Nelson]

[Bantam ISBN 0-553-10603-1]

With an interesting African-American slant, this is a take-off from Amy Vanderbilt and Letita Baldridge's etiquette.
[Reviewed by Corinne O. Nelson]

[Doubleday ISBN 0-385-48434-8]

Basquiat has been likened to the Jimi Hendrix of the art world and maybe rightly so. Rising from being a teenage graffiti writer to international stardom, Basquiat died at age twenty-seven from a drug overdose. His life was and art were legendary, however.

[Viking ISBN 0-670-85477-8]

[HarperCollins ISBN 0-06-016702-5]

According to the authors, there are six essential components of successful parenting: child-focused love; strong limit setting and discipline; continual high expectations; open, consistent, and strong communication; creating positive racial and male identity; and drawing on community resources. Not for parents only, but young men can follow these step by step to achieve academic success.

[Oxford Univ. Press ISBN 0-19-510219-3]

Jett was wrongfully thrust into one of the biggest scandals on Wall Street.  He tells in detail the story of his rise to prominence in the financial world and at Kidder Peabody.
[Reviewed by Corinne O. Nelson]

[Morrow ISBN 0-688-16136-7]

[Third World Press ISBN 0-88378-184-0 (cloth) ISBN 0-88378-181-6 (paperback)]

Russell delves into the roots of achievement by African Americans in order to provide inspiration for his biracial son. Russell chose to look at 24 men and 9 women-some well known and others not so-including Duke Ellington, Ralph Ellison, Toni Morrison, and Gordon Parks.

[Carol & Graf ISBN 0-7867-0455-1]

The Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, a branch of the New York Public Library System, created this absorbing single-volume reference that gives insight into the 400 year history of African-American life in New York featuring more than 200 images.
[Reviewed by Corinne O. Nelson]

[John Wiley ISBN 0-471-29714-3]

Blanche is a middle-aged black working-class woman who fills-in for a friend as a cook/housekeeper, only to uncover a scandal in the home of the politician she is working for.

[Viking. 288p. ISBN: 0-670-87626-7]

[Penguin USA/SIGNET ISBN 0-451-40696-6]

Yes, she's Terry McMillan's sister and she has pitted blue collar against white collar in the midst of a motor plant shutdown and layoffs. She tells a love story that even involves murder.
[Reviewed by Corinne O. Nelson]

[Warner ISBN 0-446-52243-0]

This is a departure for Mosley, known for his Easy Rawlins mysteries. Blue Light is closer to science fiction and considers the concepts of good and evil, the nature of humanity, race, and identity.
[Reviewed by Corinne O. Nelson]

[Little Brown ISBN 0-316-57098-2]

This collection consists of writings from well-known novelists such as Gloria Naylor, Jamaica Kincaid, Alice Walker, Rita Dove, Bell Hooks, Edwidge Danticat, Benilde Little, Dianne McKinney-Whetstone, Tina McElroy Ansa, and Shay Youngblood. The work is a dramatic, touching, tragic, and bawdy combination of fiction and memoir.
[Reviewed by Corinne O. Nelson]

[Three Rivers Press ISBN 0-609-60223-3(cloth) ISBN 0-609-80354-9(paperback)]

Black women and strength seem to always go together in any conversation, but here the long-ignored needs of black women are addressed and help is offered for the pain of depression.
[Reviewed by Corinne O. Nelson]

[HarperCollins ISBN 0-06-017208]

Davis provides historical, social, and political contexts with which to reinterpret the blues performances and lyrics of Rainey, Smith, and Holiday.
[Reviewed by Corinne O. Nelson]

[Vintage ISBN 0-679-77126-3]

Williams is an Emmy Award-winning actor and here offers a moving account of how, by learning to assume responsibility for himself and people in his life, one man made it to manhood. This is a constructive approach for both young men and their parents that will encourage open dialogue.

[Doubleday/Mainstreet Books ISBN 0-385-48688-X]

Johnson, who speaks widely about anger management, offers a step-by-step approach to dealing with age-old problems for the African-American men and the women who love them.
[Reviewed by Corinne O. Nelson]

[Pocket Books ISBN 0-671-51146-7]

Nobel laureate Soyinka writes a powerful sequel to the fearless book, The Open Sore of a Continent, Africa, that is. That book focused mostly on Nigeria military, but The Burden of Memory considers all of Africa and the World.
[Reviewed by Corinne O. Nelson]

[Oxford Univ. Press ISBN 0-19-512205-4]

George Foreman became heavyweight boxing champion at the age of forty-five in an astounding comeback. Now he tells the story behind his phenomenal success.

[Villard ISBN 0-375-75113-0]

This novel about sexuality and how society's attitudes have affected both men and women comes six years after Walker's last book.
[Reviewed by Corinne O. Nelson]

[Random House ISBN 0-375-50152-5]

Boyd sounds the alarm about the issue of Black women and depression especially since studies show one in five women suffer from depression but often do not recognize the symptoms.
[Reviewed by Corinne O. Nelson]

[Dutton ISBN 0-525-94446-X]

A new revision with material on the ongoing influence of reggae on Jamaican society and a revelation of previously restricted documents about the CIA's monitoring of Marley's activities.
[Reviewed by Corinne O. Nelson]

[Owl Books ISBN 0-8050-6009-X]

This work constitutes the musical and social history of Los Angeles' black community from the 1920s to the early 1950s. We learn of the amazing influence that black community had on jazz.

[University of California Press. ISBN 0-520-21189-8]

Using the personal letters from family members and friends written between 1844 and 1899 to the wife of a prominent Natchez businessman, and a diary belonging to their daughter, the story is told of this Black family's years before the Civil War as free and one-time slave holders.
[Reviewed by Corinne O. Nelson]

[Univ. of Georgia Press ISBN 0-8203-2083-8]

Andre Alexis, a writer of theater and radio, and of short stories, offers a literary delight in his novel about Thomas MacMillan. MacMillan is middle-aged, recalling his childhood and the loss he feels for those people who were around him as a boy.
[Reviewed by Corinne O. Nelson]

[Holt ISBN 0-8050-5981-4]

Three African-American men deal with issues of violence and interracial dating during the time of the O.J. Simpson trial.
[Reviewed by Corinne O. Nelson]

[Crown ISBN 0-517-70407-2]

Known more for her political activism, Sister Souljah writes her first novel about Winter Santiaga, the daughter of a prominent drug-dealing family who grew up rich in the Brooklyn, N.Y., projects.
[Reviewed by Corinne O. Nelson]

[Pocket Book ISBN 0-671-02578.3]

Chideya, a young ABC news correspondent and contributing editor for Vibe and Time magazines, guides us along America's heartland as she talks to young men and women about their views on race in America. We come to realize that America will cease to be defined in Black and white as we become more multi-ethnic.
[Reviewed by Corinne O. Nelson]

[Morrow ISBN 0-688-16530-3]

[HarperCollins ISBN 0-06-017497]

This is a combination of 50 black and white photographs and poignant quotations from the fathers and children portrayed.  It is a beautiful interpretation of fatherhood in black America. There are indeed black men who are supportive and nurturing parents.

[Univ. of Missouri Press ISBN 0-8262-1157-7]

Comes complete with checklists, worksheets, forms, charts, and record-keeping aids that will allow parents to care for their baby with confidence. Contains sections on sickle cell disease, lactose intolerance, as well as an updated list of Black publications, mail resources for multicultural and Black-oriented products.
[Reviewed by Corinne O. Nelson]

[Avon Books ISBN 0-380-80006-3]

This husband and wife team, she the editor of Essence magazine, offers inspirational writings which include passages from the Bible, the Koran, the teachings of Buddha, and African proverbs.
[Reviewed by Corinne O. Nelson]

[Anchor: Doubleday ISBN 0-385-47869-0]

Hutchinson confronts the most recent controversy of the O.J. Simpson trial, and other political events such as the nomination of Clarence Thomas to the Supreme Court, the Million Man March, the California Affirmative Action initiative, and the leadership of Minister Farrakhan.

[Middle Passage ISBN 1-881032-15-9]